Over half of workers (55%) believe that augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) will become as common as smartphones in the workplace within the next decade, according to a new report.
Tomorrow’s Workplace Technology: What Happens When Things Get Personal from technology company Mojo Vision explores employee attitudes towards next-generation workplace technologies. It says that tech-savvy employees, rather than corporate IT managers, hold the keys to accelerating enterprise adoption of AR/VR and other advanced tech.
Workers anticipate using emerging technologies like AR/VR to help them solve everyday challenges on the job, adhere to required procedures and provide unprecedented access to information.
Three quarters (75%) of workers have not yet used AR/VR headsets or similar devices at work, but the vast majority (78%) say they are open to using the technology if asked by their employers.
The data also suggests that employees are optimistic about the impact of technology on their jobs now and in the future:
- 48% think AR/VR headsets or similar devices could help them learn new skills at work.
- 45% believe that future workplace technology will be less visible and operate more in the background, allowing workers to focus on their tasks or the people in front of them, and not on their interaction with technology.
However, widespread adoption of AR/VR will depend on issues like user comfort, privacy and device distraction being addressed, Mojo Vision found.
More than half of respondents (58%) are concerned about their privacy when using the technology. Another 49% said that comfort would be an issue if they had to wear headsets for extended periods of time, and they would feel awkward using these devices around coworkers.
“It’s clear from the data that today’s workers are increasingly accustomed to the latest technology and have higher expectations for usability and benefits. And because employees are more vocal about these expectations, they now strongly influence IT decisions to deploy new technologies sooner,” said Steve Sinclair, senior vice president of product and marketing at Mojo Vision. “If next-generation workplace technologies, including AR/VR devices, are not designed and built with worker preferences in mind, workers may very well resist, and enterprise adoption could face delays or obstacles.”
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Tags: Virtual reality, AR, Augmented Reality, VR
